The Iron Circle

The Battle Against Yisern

The party clears the Woodsingers' temple and gains their trust

20

SEP/11

Sept. 20th

While enjoying their well deserved rest, the party took some time to examine the room they were in. They looked at all of the worn and rotting tables and examined the two sets of iron double doors. On the raised platform they found a table with three scrolls a top it. Donaar opened two of the scrolls and found that they were blank. The third scroll was blank as well except for a symbol with a skull and a dragon. The chief goblin, Snilvor, had a crumpled note in his pocket that read:

Unsure of what the note actually meant, the party decided to continue on and turned their attention to the iron doors. Rachiev decided to show his rougish prowess by unlocking the doors. He spent a few minutes checking the keys he picked up at the inn in Marl. The party waited patiently until he turned around in dismay. Then Narisella showed her clerical dominance by picking the doors on her first try. The whole party gathered around the doors as Gore slowly pushed them open.

The first thing they saw was the giant skull of a red dragon staring back at them. The rest of the skeleton followed behind. Bones and pieces of bones were arranged across a large table. Bits of magical energy ran through the skeleton and the party could tell that something foul was afoot. The room also contained several large brass braziers filled with flaming coals. The far end of the room was shrouded in a large mass of shimmering webs.

“You don’t appear to be the Goblins I was expecting,” came a dark voice out of the room ahead. The voice conveyed a sense of death and decay as well as any sound could. It only took a second to identify the skeletal mage Yisern as the speaker. He wore a robe of tattered silks and his eyes glowed with an unholy blue flame. “It matters little though. I suppose you’ve come for the maps.” Beside Yisern stood two other skeletons carrying mismatch pieces of armor. They stood completely still as Yisern spoke.

Rachiev, hoping to accomplish what he had been unable to do with the goblin chief, spoke up in an attempt to deceive the evil Mage. " Yes we come in lieu of the goblins. We have a note here explaining our purpose." “Hrrm… Well bring it to me then,” replied Yisern. Rachiev began walking forward but his elven senses told him that something wasn’t right. As he stepped into the room he heard a low rumble in the floor and the stone tiles below him crumbled and fell into a 10 foot pit filled with spikes! The half elf managed to quickly jump back to the edge of the pit. Then everyone looked to Yisern, who was laughing wickedly.

“You foul being! Gross son of an elf! Do you think for one second that I believed you were working with the goblins? All of you reek of dirty elf! No it’s much more likely that you’re working with those Woodsinger elves, my mortal enemies. Come to me if you dare but expect to feel my wrath!”

Determined to find a way across that pit, Donaar signaled for Gore’s help and went to find a table to bridge the gap. Atesh used his magic to quickly teleport across the pit and past Yisern. He had spotted a small lever jutting out of the wall and as he reached the wall he yanked the lever hard. A cranking and rumbling noise resonated through the walls and floors and the pit trap appeared to be disabled, however the stone tiles were still gone.

With Atesh now alone with the three skeletons, the rest of the party had to act fast to cross the pit. Gore jumped across effortlessly while the other three worked to unlock the second door. Yisern and his skeletons attacked Atesh and Gore until Rachiev finally picked the second lock. The party was running towards the battle when a jet of sticky web sprayed out of the web mass and covered Donaar and Rachiev. Then a massive spider slinked out and bit at the dragonborn.

The party fought courageously against Yisern’s great magics and the cunning of the glimmerweb spider. At one point, as the party was being overrun by Yisern and cornered by the spider, Gore grabbed the skeletal mage and used his own sinister trap against him! The mage fell into the pit with a great rattling, landing on top of one of the other skeletons who had been shoved in earlier. Unable to see the party, Yisern was prevented from attacking them while they dispatched the spider alone. Gore was the first to reach the pit’s edge and unleashed his most devastating attack. Using his weapon hand, the dwarf deftly removed his belt and allowed his trousers to drop to the ground. Sufficiently freed, Gore then relieved himself on Yisern, successfully humiliating the only being among them that had already cheated death.

Yisern, dripping and smelling of urine, launched a final attack against the object of all his rage. His hands exploded with lightning that arced out and engulfed Gore’s bottom half. Then the lightning retracted back into the pit, dragging the dwarf with it. With a thud and the clanging of metal against stone the dwarf was knocked unconscious. Rachiev rushed up and threw his magical javelin, ending Yisern’s cursed existence. The battle over, the rest of the party worked together to stabilize and rescue Gore from his spiky place of resting.

Yisern’s lair was the second half of the elven temple. Besides the half reanimated dragon, the party also saw a pair of large bookcases full of archaic tomes. There was a large iron door behind the spider webs that seemed to be completely sealed shut. The party spent nearly an hour examining every part of the room except the book cases themselves. While they hoped to find treasure, there was also no clear route that exited the temple. Eventually Narisella noticed an uneven section of the backings of the bookcase. With a little fudging she managed to pull out a hidden compartment. Inside the party found Yisern’s last valuables. Atesh took a set of teeth from the dragon, hoping to use them in magical rituals as well as to show the elves that they had succeeded. After more searching and milling around,the party finally remember the goblin’s note. Everyone gathered inside the blue circles in the earlier room and Rachiev said “Dal Nastiere” as loud as he could. A white flash engulfed the room and the party disappeared.

On the surface, the group of heroes walked triumphantly back to the Woodsinger elves. They heard the beating of horse hooves and saw Ren approaching the same forest entrance as they were. When he noticed the party he spurred his horse towards then and came to a stop only a few feeg short of Gore’s face.

“Nazrin’s forces are gathering outside of Harken! Tell me that you were successful in convincing the woodsinger elves to join our fight! " The party explained how they were and how they needed to talk to the elder and then they could return to Albridge. Ren nodded and said he had to continue on. When he was gone the party walked the rest of the way to the elven elder.

The party and Israfen talked about the elven temple and the battle to come. Atesh showed him the dragon’s teeth as proof that Yisern was dead. Convinced thoroughly, Israfen committed the Woodsingers to the war. Then the party retired to their quarters to sleep. In the morning they would return to Albridge and the battle could commence!